Australian Competitive Grants

The Department of Education and Training Research Infrastructure Block Grant allocation meets infrastructure costs of research projects funded through Australian competitive grants, and is distributed among institutions according to their share of income from Australian Competitive Grants.

Australian Competitive Grants are limited to the research schemes listed in the Australian Competitive Grants Register.

The most up-to-date ACG register is available in PDF format at the Commonwealth site.

The qualifying criteria for inclusion in the ACG Register are:

1. Funds must be provided on a nationally competitive basis and clearly be for research only.

2. The funding scheme must be nationally advertised and available to universities throughout Australia.

3. The funding scheme must have a well-defined mechanism for competition and selection by a well-qualified panel.

4. Funds must be provided through direct transfer from the funding agency to the higher education institution.

5. Grants in kind such as the use of facilities, equipment etc. or subsidised travel or accommodation are not eligible.

6. Funding schemes used exclusively to fund student scholarships are not eligible.

7. Schemes that provide funding wholly or mainly for infrastructure purposes are not eligible.

8. The funding body must agree to provide funding data to the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the data must be up to date.

9. For non-Commonwealth research funding schemes, the total annual budget must be at least $1,000,000.

Note:

Other grants received (indirectly) from the Australian Government via schemes not listed in the ACG register are categorised as ‘Other Public Sector’ research income.

If a funding body listed in this category has other funding schemes, or commissions research on a specific project nominated by that funding body (whether or not through competitive tender), that project will be counted as ‘Other Public Sector’ research, or as ‘Industry and Other Funding’, as applicable.

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